Federal prosecutor to open investigation into death of Georgia teen found rolled up in gym mat

View full sizeKendrick Johnson at the gym he was later found dead in. (screen grab from surveillance video)

A Federal prosecutor announced Thursday that he will open an investigation into the death of a teenager whose body was found rolled up in a gym mat at a Georgia high school, according to an Associated Press story.

Kendrick Johnson, 17, was found inside the gym mat in January, and a coroner ruled then that his death was accidental, saying Johnson suffocated when he tried to get his shoe out from the rolled up mat. Johnson's family said they never believed that story.

The family had the body exhumed and a second autopsy performed by an independent medical examiner. That examiner, Dr. William Anderson, listed an intentional blow to the side of his neck as the cause of Johnson's death.

"It's still a long battle and we still have a long way to go but this is a start," Johnson's father, Kenneth, told ABC News.

Michael Moore, the U.S. attorney for the Middle
District of Georgia said in an press conference Thursday, "I will follow the facts wherever they lead. My objective is to
discover the truth."

A surveillance video released Wednesday showed the minutes leading up to the death of the Georgia teenager. According to an NBC News story, the surveillance shows Johnson, but not the moment when he was killed.